Land of the Blades

26. Wish

As soon as I step on one of Rider's ship, I was forced to summon Rho Aias to protect Caster and myself from the attack of its crew. They weren't Lunarians, instead they looked like statues of pirates that had come to life, some looked like humans and others more like skeletons. They were all armed with guns or swords, but their attacks weren't too effective against my shield. I took advantage of the situation to let Caster stand on her own feet, and ask her a question that has been bothering me.

—I'm sure you know I could have destroyed at least one of these ships from the ground, and Phos could have damaged another with Lancer's spear, so why insist on coming directly against her?

—Three reasons. Rider's fleet is almost limitless, but she can only maintain three ships at the same time as she is right now, if one is destroyed she could have replaced it relatively easily. Secondly, she is obsessed with you, but wouldn't blow one of her own ships to get you, so you are the safest here, and she can't focus entirely on the gems on the ground too much either. Thirdly... —she paused and looked away, in the direction where Rider was— I want to try to release her from Franny's control.

—You said you couldn't use your magic, yet you did use your scepter, are you hiding anything else?

She smiled.

—Not at all, even when I was using my Noble Phantasm I wasn't sure it would work properly, but it did, so I think I only need to think it will work to make it work! —she said full of confidence, but my expression must have made her start feeling nervously—, I know it is a selfish wish, the beings that we are right now aren't connected in any way, it is just a remnant of the ghost they used to make us, but even so... please, lend me your strength and help me free her!

—I'll help you, but we need to do it quickly, I won't let the other gems be in danger unnecessarily.

She nodded and I dissolved my shield, instead re-creating the swords Bakuya and Kanshou from the shards of obsidian and my own metallic "flesh", and used them to block and counter the attack of two of the pirate-like enemies. Their bodies feel like stone as I had imagined, but as soon as I had cut them, they turn into dust. They weren't too much efficient fighters, they only had the advantage of being more than us and that I had to keep Caster safe from both swords and bullets.

Fighting against them at that pace would take too much time, and we would still have to fight against Rider after that. I didn't want to risk my friends on the ground, so I decided to try a little trick I had been thinking of.

—Trace, ON!

With the blueprints I had in my mind and the resources I could pull out of my inner world, I was able to manifest several blades floating right above the enemies, and then I just let the swords rain over them. This didn't kill all of them, but at least opened a path towards Rider's ship. I grabbed Caster and ran through it, leaping from one ship to the other before the pirates could stop us. Rider was sitting on some sort of throne, surrounded by a smaller but better armed crew. She seemed delighted to see me, and stood up ready to fight. Caster started to prepare her spell, and I steeped ahead with my blades drawn and materializing others to counter Rider and her crew's attacks. I had some degree controlling them, but much like how Rider with her cannons, I had to focus on each blade if I wanted to move them independently.

The pirates were tough to defeat, but my newly developed skill gave me an edge and I was able to defeat them one by one. Rider, on the other hand, was unexpectedly agile and incredible resourceful, and it seemed like vanishing her comrades only gave her more space to move and attack. When only she and two of her minions remained, she tried to use the chains that had bound Ghost and me when we had first met. I knew I would be paralyzed if she caught me with them, but for some reason I couldn't focus entirely on the battle. My head started hurting and my vision became blurry.